The Repetition

Histoire(s) du théâtre (I)

Theater

von Milo Rau

From the very beginning, theatre has been an incantation of the dead, a ritualized experience of original sins and collective traumas. In the first part of Milo Rau’s curated series “Histoire(s) du théâtre” the director and author approaches tragedy in the form of an allegorical crime game. What’s at the beginning of a crime? Intention or coincidence? What role does the audience play? What is the collective’s fault? Can a crime be reconstructed at all? And who will be on stage? Together with the four actors Sara De Bosschere, Sébastien Foucault, Johan Leysen and Tom Adjibi, as well as the storage man Fabian Leenders and the dog-sitter Suzy Cocco, he follows the trail of a capital crime, searching for the essential fatalities and emotions of the tragic experience: loss and grief, lie and truth, disaster and fear, cruelty and terror. Six actors and amateurs contemplate about the glamour and abysses of life and theatre and slip into the roles of the protagonists of a brutal murder case: A manifesto for a democratic theatre of the real emerges.

With this production, Milo Rau introduces the series “Histoire(s) du théâtre”, a long-term performative investigation into the oldest art form of human kind, which will be continued in the season 2018/19 by the Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula. In this first part, Rau and his team return to the fundamental problems of their artistic work over the last 15 years: the question of the representability of violence and traumatic events on stage – in search of the core of the fundamentally tragic human condition and in celebration of the power of theatre.

CONCEPT, TEXT AND DIRECTOR Milo Rau PERFORMERS Sara De Bosschere / Kristien de Proost, Suzy Cocco, Sébastien Foucault, Fabian Leenders, Johan Leysen / Sabri Saad El Hamus, Tom Adjibi / Adil Laboudi RESEARCH & DRAMATURGY Eva-Maria Bertschy DRAMATURGIC COLLABORATION Stefan Bläske, Carmen Hornbostel SET & COSTUME DESIGN Anton Lukas VIDEO Maxime Jennes and Dimitri Petrovic LIGHT DESIGN Jurgen Kolb TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Jens Baudisch PRODUCTION Mascha Euchner-Martinez, Eva-Karen Tittmann ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Carmen Hornbostel ASSISTANT DRAMATURG François Pacco ASSISTANT SET DESIGNER  Patty Eggerickx PUBLIC RELATIONS Yven Augustin DESIGN Nina Wolters EQUIPMENT Workshops and studios du Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles

“The Repetition” is a production by the International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM), Création Studio Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles, SUPPORTED BY the Capital Cultural Fund Berlin and Pro Helvetia, Ernst Göhner Stiftung, Kulturförderung Kanton St.Gallen, IN COLLABORATION WITH Kunstenfestivaldesarts, NTGent, Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne, Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers, Tandem Scène Nationale Arras Douai, Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin, Théâtre de Liège, Münchner Kammerspiele, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt a. M., Theater Chur, Gessnerallee Zürich, Romaeuropa Festival. WITH A CONTRIBUTION of ESACT Liège.